These guidelines govern how business owners should engage with their claimed listing on Review Guru. They sit alongside our Terms of use and Content policy.
What you can do
- Reply publicly to any review. Replies appear under the review on your listing and are visible to all readers.
- Update your business info. Name, address, hours, phone, website, description, primary category. Changes are live immediately.
- Upload photos. Hero shot, interior, menu, logo. Please own the rights to everything you upload.
- Flag reviews you believe violate our policy.Our moderators read every report. We will not remove a review just because it's negative — but we will remove it if it's fake, off-topic, or in breach of the Content Policy.
What you must not do
- Do not offer incentives for reviews. Discounts, freebies, loyalty points, or any benefit in exchange for a review — positive or negative — is considered review manipulation and grounds for losing your verified-owner status. The FTC, UK CMA, and Sri Lanka CAA all treat this as deceptive commerce.
- Do not write reviews for your own business. Even via a different account or a friend. This includes having staff review the business. Self-reviews are easy to detect from behaviour patterns and will be removed; repeat offences lose your claim.
- Do not post reviews on competitors.Owners cannot review direct competitors. Don't try.
- Do not threaten or dox reviewers. If you disagree with a review, reply professionally or flag it. Contacting the reviewer privately to pressure them for changes is grounds for immediate removal.
- Do not include personal contact info in replies. Phone numbers, emails, WhatsApp — keep them off the public reply. Ask the reviewer to contact your listed business email instead.
Best practices for replies
- Respond to negative reviews within 48 hours. A calm, constructive reply rescues far more relationships than ignoring.
- Thank reviewers by name (first name + initial is what we show). Keeps replies human.
- Own mistakes.If something went wrong, acknowledge it. Don't litigate it publicly.
- Offer to make it right privately.“Please email us at hello@yourbusiness.com so we can look into this” is better than arguing in the thread.
- Don't copy-paste identical replies. Readers notice, and our moderation system flags patterns.
Photos
Upload photos you took or own. Don't upload competitor photos, stock-photo-without-licence, or anything containing other people's faces without permission. Keep them relevant — photos of products, dishes, interiors, menus, and staff are welcome; off-topic or promotional banners are not.
Enforcement
First violations usually get a warning. Serious violations (paid reviews, threatening a customer, creating fake listings) can lead to immediate loss of your verified-owner status and a temporary or permanent ban. All enforcement actions are logged in our audit system and appealable via appeals@reviewguru.lk.
Questions
For anything guideline-related that isn't covered here, email business@reviewguru.lk.